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          We are being asked to offer memories  and photographs of the Great War, gleaned from survivors still alive or their letters and albums.

          There are photos in our family album, horses pulling huge field artillery guns, blurred pictures of groups of soldiers after the battle of Messines.   But, better than that, I had found    two old green suede diaries, obviously transcribed after the war from notes taken hurriedly at the time on the Western Front and the later campaign in Italy.   These have now been given to the British War Museum.    Before they went, I managed to link the entries to the accounts of military action given in official war histories. 

             My father, Harry Stead, was on the Somme in 1916 and his regiment was in the battles of Passchendaele as well as Messines.  He was with the Royal Artillery in battle for four years, was recommended for a DSO and given a Military Cross.   This was  for the time when he started off the day as a subaltern and ended it as a major at the age of 26 when he discovered he was the only officer who had survived.  He found his batman holding his lost cap and in tears thinking that he was dead.    He then took command of B Battery, at 102 Brigade, in the 23^rd Division, which fought through most of the Third Battle of Ypres before being sent to the Italian campaign in November 1917.

   The official account is from the history of the Royal Regiment  of Artillery, Western Front, 1914-18 by General Sir Martin Farndale, KCB, who records that 1917 and the spring of 1918 saw some of the heaviest fighting and the worst battles of the war, as the Germans and British with their allies fought savagely over each yard of ground.  Woods and railway lines, hills and spinneys were taken, lost and re-taken over and over again with huge loss of life.

   The Third Battle of Ypres , the history records, saw the mightiest bombardment so far on a frontage of 15 miles.  Seventeen British divisions, backed by the power of 3,106 guns fired the biggest artillery attack ever known until that time.  In an 18-day preparatory bombardment alone, almost 3m shells were fired on to the German forward positions.    Nothing like it had ever been attempted before.  It was “war on the grand scale.”

       There was nothing grand, though, about the men and horses struggling in the mud.  Harry Stead’s  diary starts cheerfully, impressed by the junior officers and other ranks of his new command in April 1917.    But there followed two months of attacks, counter-attacks and constant shelling before the big battle  at Messines Ridge which preceded Ypres.  The British and enemy lines were only yards apart.  The artillery plan, says the history, was “sound and brilliantly executed.”

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    On April 10 the guns got bogged down in the mud.     On April 11,  “The remainder of the guns arrived at dusk.  It was an awful job.  The guns were sunk in mud up to the breech.  We didn’t get the guns into action until midnight and we were all wet through to the skin.”    Next day the battery was shelled and three guns knocked out.    “All the remainder were buried.  Our position is close to Shrapnel  Corner at Ypres.  Our O.P. is Windy Corner, to the right of Hill 60.  They are both bad places.”

    New guns are brought to replace the ones  knocked out.  Then the battery was shelled.   He left to go to the forward infantry lines and looks for position.  “Sniped.  Left front line at 5.15 p.m.  Shelled from 6.30 to .45.  More guns knocked out.

       April 18.  “Kirkley (a lieutenant)  had to leave observation post owing to the shells.  Battery heavily shelled by 5.9” and 8”.  More of our guns have gone west. The mess is a complete washout.”

     April 21.  “Moved the OP because of heavy shell fire, from Windy Corner to Grand Fleet St.  Heavy shelling everywhere.”  Then, in a classic understatement, “It’s been an uncomfortable day.”

      The battle of Messines started at exactly 3.10 a.m. on June 7.     From the diary, “June 6. Arrived at Battery from leave at 5.30 p.m.  Arranging barrages fort next day’s battle. Gas shells until 3 a.m.     June 7.  Battle of Messines, Zero hour 3.10.  Hill 60.  Gunfire intense.  Went forward to reconnoitre Observation Post.  Lost Blyth and three telephonists got buried in a trench by Hill 60 from shellfire.  Inspected Hill 60 craters and Boche dugout.  Found maps.  Shellfire very bad.  Narrow escapes.  Went to front line and found Infantry battalion out of touch.  Took their dispositions back to Base.  Good day but very hectic.”

     Infantry positions were important.  Cut lines meant that they could be right out of touch.  The official history recounts that many forward observation officers on Messines Ridge, no one having told them there was to be a second, following attack were unable to tell their own troops from the enemy and engaged them.  There was no way of stopping them.  Neither they nor their officers knew what was happening. Next evening, one battalion of a forward brigade was heavily engaged from Messines Ridge, being mistaken for an enemy counterattack.  It wasn’t until the next day that the breakdown in control was put right.    “The blunder marred one of the best periods of artillery bombardment so far in the war,” says Farndale’s history.   It was actually, in modern phraseology, a “friendly fire” at its most tragic, and showed the importance of Harry Stead’s visits to the infantry front lines.

   There was a lull for Battery.  Then fighting continues.

 “June 13.  Battery shelled with gas.  Went with Kirkley to find a new position forward.  Shelled all the time.   SGT Massey and Sgt Howarth killed.

   June 14.  Repairing lines to OP.  Firing for infantry.  Corp. Jones wounded.  Attack on canal successful. 

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  June 15  Kirkley at new position preparing pits for guns.  Two guns with 12 loads of ammunition and four GS wagon loads of high explosive material all in.  Wired guns on SOS lines.

June 16.  Went to look for OP to observe on Klein Zillebeeke  (in maps in the official history this is about two miles north west of Hill 60, near a lake and about three miles south eas of Ypres.)  Walked for about six hours, nearly hit by 5.9.  Registered guns at Hill 60 in new position.  Four rounds.  Lost wire transport FM.  Back to old position.  Four gunes ready for moving.”

      There are more movements of guns overnight.    “Tired out.” he records.   There follows drenching rain, wet all night in bivouacs and cleaning up.   

     By June 22 the Battery had moved off to Boecheppe, arriving in the evening.  The diary is blank.  The next action recorded is heavy and daily bombing in July, before the Battle of Pilckem Ridge, part of the Third Battle of Ypres and the massive bombardments at Passchendaele from July 1 to November, 1917.

     From the official Royal Artillery history:  “Passchendaele:  what emotion that name generates, even to those who were not there:  it means many things to many people but to all it means mud, massed bombardments, bloody and cruel fighting and, above all, courage and stamina in the face of appalling conditions.   Strictly speaking, Passchendaele was part of the Third Battle of Ypres, which consisted of a series of battles.  First was the initial British attack on Pilckem Ridge, which was launched on 31 July and lasted until 2 August.

    My father and his Brigade were now with the 2^nd Corps in the Fifth Army.

“July 30.  Getting guns laid on barrage lines, digging dugout.  Sat up all night.  Pat and Marks had made dugout.  Hook (Sgt James Hook, his batman who was with him throughout), Page and Kirkley made one for Kirkley and myself.  Hook and Kirkley nearly buried.  Shelled all night.

July 31  3.50 a.m.   Zero Battery shelled by 8”, 5.9”, 4.2”.   Whizzbangs and some gas shells.  Ten Boche planes over ujs M.G 12.45.  Ellison with ammunitiuon.

1.10  New target.   Barraging all day, cease firing 7.30 p.m.  Blyth back.  Rain.

August 1.  One foot of water in dugout.    Soaked through.   New SOS lines.  Everyone went through.

August 2.   Dugout caved in on Kirkley and I.  9 a.m. Gen. Arbuthnot round, very sorry for us.  Shelled all day.  Rain all day, heavy rain all night.”

   The history records that a German counter-attack started at 11.30 hours.  By 1300 hours (when Harry Stead records that he is seeking a new target) drizzling rain settled in, blinding observation.  Control of guns became difficult.  Drenching rain began to fall making artillery observation nearly impossible.  The counterattack followed up.  But the prearranged protective barrage was fired by the British Gunners with such speed, accuracy and ferocity that the Germans broke and fled.

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       At Ypres, the labours of the artillery were as gruelling as those of the infantry and judging by the casualties,  almost as hazardous.  There had been almost no proper rest or relief fom 16 to 31 July, when the battle commenced and detachments were near total exhaustion at the time when  they should have been most alert.

      Conditions at the guns were terrible, pouring rain, thick oozing mud capable of swallowing a man, a horse or even a gun, made hopeless platforms.  For shelter, a piece of corrugated iron over a water-filled shell hold was all that could be done.    General Farndale writes:The sheer courage and endurance shown by the exhausted , weary gunners at Third Ypres was as great as had ever been shown in the Regiment’s history for the horror of it went  on and on without respite, without mercy until death itself was merciful.”

    From my father’s diary:     “August 4.  Shelled all day.  Registered guns.  Signallers wounded.

August 5.  Heavy  shelling.  Heavy rain and mud.  Everything miserable.  Went to wagon lines.  Given 48 hours rest – much needed.   Hot baths in great request at rest  area.

Recalled to Battery after 20 hours. Shelled all way.  In action again at 4 p.m.  Bad night.  Boche shelling.

August 7. Shooting all day.

August 8  Battery and Mess shelled all day.  Rain again.  Direct hit on No. 1 gun.  SOS 9.40 to 10.15, shelled again.  Hitchcox wounded, Sgt Massey got DCM.

August 10  Zero hour 4.35 a.m.  Heavily shelled as soon as we opened fire.  Lt. Corder wounded, also Sgt. Massey. Gunner Cubley killed, Corporal  Hodgkins wounded.  Quietened down 10,30 a.m. New SOS.  Gunners Buxton and Boswell killed.  Bombardier Blackman and Sgt Rigg killed.  Bombs.  Brown, Barlow and Barnes wounded, also Cpl Forman, Gunner Jacks.

      August 9 Cleaning up round Battery.  Developed irrigation scheme.  Battery shelled .  Sgt Smith killed, Sgt Richardson wounded.

August 11   700 rounds got into position.  Heavy rain, also shells.

August 12   Intermittent shelling all day.  Went to Observation post, had to run once or twice.

August 13.  Handed over to 242 Brigade, RFA.  B242 knocked out within three hours of taking over.

August 14. Cleaning up.  Kirkley takes ammunition to Elverdin.  

On this day, the history records the start of the battle of Langemarck.   The fighting for Inverness Copse on the XIV and XVIII Corp[s front was long and better.  Though the Copse was taken, it had later to be abandoned.

      All of this time Harry Stead’s No 2 Corps, Fifth Army was in and out of action.

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Sept  5   Went into acion in 155 Groupl  Fired smoke barrage.   Battle on right 8.45 p.m.  Standing by for SOS.

Sept 6  Zero hour 7.30 a.m., shooting match till 9 a.m.  Registered guns and checked lines of Battery.  Centre section relieved by section of B.290.

 Sept 7 Centre section to Hamjoek.   Marks, Seale and I returned to 290 Brigade and took 4 guns straight to Hamhoek around 10 p.m.   Heard we were going back to Dickebushe.

(In II Corps area 36 batteries had been moved into the Dickebushe area before Pilckem Ridge.)

     The Battery was now moved and went on a five hour march, having got up at 3.30 a.m. and ready to leave at 6.30 a.m., to what can most nearly be deciphered as Renungmelst, though this place is not in the index of the  history.   There they were busy constructing a Mess and even a table.  They must have been some way behind the front line.

     But illness followed.  By Sept 12 my father was laid up with boils, the result of weakness from the appalling conditions and bad weather.

   He carried on, with notes about Sanctuary Wood, making gun positions for Ypres and Polygon Wood being captured by 25 Division.    These woods recur again and again in accounts of the Battles of Ypres and figure prominently on the maps.

   All this time, Harry Stead was growing progressively sicker  and on Sept 28 had a carbuncle cut out of his neck.  Then the diary goes blank.  On October began the battle of Broodseinde, followed by Poelcappelle on October 9 and the first battle of Passchendaele on October 12.  The 5^th Army. Of which the Brigade was a part, was in the thick of it.  Hundreds of guns were knocked out.    There are continual changes in the diary.   Though the weather had broken and drenching rain fell for two days, producing the terrible mud of Passchendele, Douglas Haig, a master of the ruthless wrong move, determined to press on.  On October 12, the first battle began.

     The Farndale history recalls:    “Conditions now became quite frightful, wounded lay unattended around the guns and pillboxes, and trenches were full of them.  Snipers did great execution on the survivors and the supply of food and ammunition became virtually impossible.”   Yet Haig had said he believed his troops were practically through the enemy defences.  “This ignorance of the truth and of the terrible misery of the forward troops cannot really be forgiven.” 

     Nowhere were the conditions worse than in the gun lines.  Guns sank and disappeared – men and horses sank for ever into the boiling quagmire of Passchendaele.

    The Battery missed the second battle, from October 26 to November 10,  which saw the horrors of mustard gas and a sneezing gas, which forced men to remove their gas masks.   “The battlefield took on a weird likeness to an artist’impression of hell.”    After the battle which improved the Ypres position for the winter, Haig decided to halt the Flanders campaign.

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      And some five British divisions, including Harry Stead’s, were ordered to Italy under General Plomer to help the struggling Italian armies.    That is another story.